She Wins by a Nose - Gabrielle is wearing a clown nose. One of those bright red spongy numbers. As a matter of fact, everyone within striking distance of Gabbie is similarly adorned. It’s a bobbing sea of smiling faces, every new passer-by feeling the soft “pop” on their nose as Gabbie plops another comic proboscis on another unsuspecting victim. It’s ridiculous and I’m quite certain that if I were there, in the thick of the clown-nose festooning festivities, I would find a half-dozen completely plausible reasons why I do not need to participate.

Not everyone wants to participate. A few people skirt around the edges of the festivities, watching warily the ceremony of induction into this silly and impromptu community. Most people pause for a moment, as if considering the emotional obstacles, yet their hesitation is brief. Shortly a line forms. And then the line gets longer. People want to play and Gabbie can’t keep up with the growing enthusiasm.

So she enlists helpers. A grouchy-looking grey-haired woman in a likewise dour suit grabs a handful of foam noses from Gabbie’s bag, and shoves one on her own face before striding purposefully to the outlying edge of the crowd, working it like a police line, grabbing every gawker and making them part of the scene. A guy in paint-splattered pants and steel-toed boots joins a couple of kids to show the grown-ups how it’s done, lifting them up so the kids can apply noses up and down the line, reminding everyone how uplifting it is to lift up another.

And on goes another nose.

I’m watching the whole debacle from a distance. Safely, virtually, through the filter of a “social networking” site. I enjoy the notion of online social networking. I like the “virtual” part best. The idea that I can hole up in my house and still keep in touch with friends and family is both comforting and comfortable. I can be glib and merry and charming and intriguing, all while wearing my pajamas. I can edit my adventures in order to appear as if I’ve got it all under control, Photoshopping reality into one fantastic profile photo.

Gabbie’s escapade is decidedly unedited. Risky. Live and in person. Her post this morning read; “There’s something on your nose…” How could I resist? I clicked. I looked. I gawked at the ridiculousness of it. A photo album commemorating the community cultivated via a bag of bright red clown noses. And then it clicked. Gabbie gets it. She knows that in order to build a community you have to immerse yourself, all the way up to your nose.

Just to prove the point, I nosed around on the Internet, and unearthed the following quote by French philosopher Michel de Montaigne: “Traveling through the world produces a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men. We are all of us confined and enclosed within ourselves, and see no farther than the end of our nose. This great world is a mirror where we must see ourselves in order to know ourselves. There are so many different tempers, so many different points of view, judgments, opinions, laws and customs to teach us to judge wisely on our own, and to teach our judgment to recognize its imperfection and natural weakness.”

I paused and pushed back from my computer to ponder. Time to shake myself out of self-imposed solitude. Time to sniff out new customs and change my perspective.

Why not find meaning in something as minute as a red foam clown nose? If Gabbie can mobilize a mob with a mere “pop” of bright red spongy frivolity, what might happen if we really took the time to look beyond our own noses and into the eyes of those around us, live and in person? If the vehicle for vaulting the vast cavern of “virtual” in today’s electronic world is as nominal as a red foam clown nose, then I’m getting one. No, I’m getting a dozen. Or two. And then I’m going to go outside and put them on everyone I find.

I search online, and within moments I’ve got two-dozen dozen bright red ridiculous red foam clown noses winging their way toward my mailbox. Because I want what Gabbie’s got. The ability to connect with another human in an uplifting and unexpected way, to look into the eyes of others and smile, to share something as simple as a moment of joy and the realization I’m part of a much bigger network. Live and in person.

So often we find we have our nose to the grindstone, immersed in our labor. We can’t see past the end of our own situation to consider the community that is around us. It is a rare moment when we lift up our heads from our work and engage in a meaningful way. And yet we want to create and sustain flourishing networks of support. Community is not built of brick and mortar, but generated from the invigorating force of people collaborating in unexpected ways. Sustaining that social experience requires more than ideas in the ether. If our best raw materials are our own selves, our humor and innovation and ability to reach out a hand in person and connect, what is the invitation you will extend?

© Deena Ebbert / Propellergirl 2009